The Asbury Hotel — Hotel in Asbury Park

I have been dying to come to this hotel for years. It has never worked out so I was very excited to finally try it to celebrate my birthday this year. Unfortunately I was disappointed.

It started with some miscommunication regarding the rooftop. I messaged the Instagram ahead of time to confirm that it would be open even though the rooftop opening party had been postponed. They told me yes it would still be open. When I arrived at the hotel and they said no, it was closed until the new opening party which is not what I had been told before. The following day, I asked a new employee who told me no it would not be open, but then we saw that there were people on the roof later that day. When we asked again, then it was open. The employees had not given the right information either in person or on Instagram, and if this info had simply changed, there was no notification either in the hotel or on their Instagram.

After a day at the beach or pool, one of my favorite things to do is taking nice shower afterwards. Unfortunately my room had no hot water and it was lukewarm at best. I assumed it was a fluke so I gave it an additional day, but when the water didn’t get any better, I brought it to the attention of the front desk, hoping they could look at the room. They offered to remove the resort fee and move me to a new room, which I appreciated. When I arrived to the new room, the door was propped open, and the water was just running in the room. It was unclear if this room had finished being cleaned and when I brought it to the attention of the front desk they made no comment about it. Unfortunately, the new room was even worse. Instead of the water being lukewarm, it was ice cold. I’m not sure why there are so many water issues with this hotel. The pool water was actually warmer than the showers (def a plus for the pool). This feels like a very simple amenity to have, and it needs to be fixed, but it doesn’t seem like anyone intends to do that.

I purchased some items at the pool bar and food truck, but I was never able to see my total bill. Even when I asked to close out and see it they said it would just be sent to the room. Even after checking out, I still didn’t see the itemized receipt showing what was being charged. There seems to be an extreme lack of transparency here and it seems concerning that they are hiding something. I’m not sure why everyone is so reluctant to tell you what you were being charged. I asked to see copy of the final charges at checkout, and when they were printed, I noticed that I was charged triple the amount for Parking and the resort fee was never removed as promised. If I had not asked to see it, then I simply would’ve been charged for services that I didn’t even use. I also notified them of the continued water issues in the new room, but I received no apology for the water issues or the incorrect billing.

There were also plenty of small things that were annoying and not ideal for any hotel. They were lacking some cleanliness, rooms are VERY small, my fridge was broken, and the unopened shampoo/conditioner/body wash bottles are mounted to the wall. These bottles weren’t opened before mounting them to the wall so it’s impossible to actually use them because they’re locked. This seems like a silly thing, but it’s very annoying when you’re fighting for your life to open the shampoo in an ice cold shower you just want to be over.

This hotel is beautiful and I feel like they’re going for more, but it’s missing the mark on some of the major basic needs. I think hot water is a basic necessity for a hotel and I also think that the lack of transparency with bills is very concerning.

I wish I could’ve had a better experience for my birthday, but unfortunately, this hotel left a bad taste in my mouth and I would not recommend it. I hope they take these concerns seriously and improve the hotel for...

This review is factual and worth the read. The hotel does not even deserve 1 star. Please take the time to read! We booked this hotel in 2018 for my daughters wedding. At that time they offered 2 complimentary nights in a regular room for the brides and months later offered an optional upgrade to a suite for approximately $380:00 a night. They declined, but as a surprise I upgraded their room to the Oceanfront suite in February. I also booked a Park suite for myself for 2 nights. Both rooms were confirmed the week before the wedding. In addition they told me that the oceanfront room will be on the 7th floor and mine on the 4th. On Saturday ( day before the wedding) we arrived at the hotel around 1pm. We were told the Park suite was ready but the Oceanfront needed cleaning and they would call housekeeping right away to get that room cleaned. (Lie #1) We brought the gowns and luggage up to the Park suite and about an hour later received a call from Amy Floss (Hotel Event Manager). We were told that the current occupant (a bride) of the Oceanfront suite that we were waiting for had left the room and all her belongings remained in the room so housekeeping was unable to clean it at this time. (Lie #2). Approximately 30 minutes later we received another call from Amy. She offered us a Park Suite that was available now... or we could wait until this evening for the Oceanfront room. (Lie #3). We chose to wait and at that time I asked for compensation for such a late check in. She assured me that the suite would now be comped. We left for the church for the rehearsal and dinner and returned to the hotel at 7pm. We were greeted by a manager who told us we could not have the Oceanfront Suite because the hotel made an error and overbooked. He immediately offered a Park suite, comped both suites, champagne and $2000 off the bill. Money can not replace the loss of a beautiful, calm, happy wedding experience, but apparently this hotel believes guests can be bought. This was my only daughters wedding. The lies and deceit all day caused so much unnecessary stress for all of us. So unprofessional. The experience continued to go down hill. Suite 418, frayed old rug folded over because it didn't fit the area (tripping hazard), centipede in bathroom, hairs in the corners of room. The following morning the coffee machine did not work. I was told to go down to the lobby and get a complimentary coffee. Really. Following the church we returned to our rooms to freshen up prior to reception. Neither room was cleaned, nor was it cleaned after the reception, despite asking that the rooms be cleaned ASAP. Disgusting that a newly married couple had to spend the night in a dirty room with no clean towels and no toilet paper. One of the staff eventually found us a stack of clean towels but the rooms were never cleaned and tissues were used to replace toilet paper. Just a few more thoughts for those planning on having an event here... the hotel took it upon themselves to move the bar that was in the reception room to another area outside the room. Guests had to leave the reception to go to the bar. Never even asked us. Bartenders when asked why they were not in the reception said it would have been too crowded in there.I cannot imagine what would have happened if I did not hire a private event planner back in February! Management at this hotel take advantage of situations where you do not want to ruin the special day/event... and you'll let things go...and they know it. All the comps in the world could never make up for the stress and disappointment we experienced at this hotel. Management should have been immediately upfront about the overbooking instead of hiding...

Beware! We just got married and spent the weekend in the panoramic sweet (which was over priced and windows were horrendously dirty so it was not a good value in anyway) in the Asbury hotel and I had booked my room block there. I had a few unfortunate and unsavory experiences during my stay with you. There were some issues with the room blocks that I had to intervene and mention that they were in fact giving better rates to people who went through Google than through my room block (which they hold you 90% financially accountable/responsible for any rooms within your block that aren’t taken and paid for you yourself will have to pay for in the end). The room block issues were rectified by Nicole before our arrival which we greatly appreciated. I again experienced another issue later on upon check in where the valet was extremely rude to my husband on the weekend of our wedding that we booked with you and I was very displeased to find out the valet is a third party and not much could be done. We were disrespected by him and had little to no help with loading our things or them holding the door open for us to get our things into the lobby for check in. It was upsetting struggling up the ramp with them not opening doors for us while lugging our luggage in etc. The only thing they could do for our poor experience was remove the parking fee which didn’t seem like enough for the level of discomfort and disrespect we were shown and how disappointed and dissatisfied we were coming away from that experience. Additionally, I spent THOUSANDS of dollars on a photo and video team that had a hard time doing our photo shoot in our panoramic suite room at the Asbury due to the massive pile of dirt that wasn’t mentioned at all in the process of booking which was a horrifically unsightly thing to look at in the background of all of our shots on top of that disgusting yellow streaks ran down all the windows obstructing most of the shots of the views in the background I am extremely dissatisfied. We were charged a resort amenities fee and there were no sinks other than the bathroom and no microwave in the rooms I found it to be severely lacking in resort like amenities especially with the lack of the usual things like the complimentary coffee in the lobby in the mornings etc. I travel with my fiancé often and stay at all sorts of beautiful resorts and hotels and what we experienced no newlywed should have to go through. The Panoramic sweet was way too over priced for the level of cleanliness and upkeep they put into it. I highly recommend you don’t book your wedding room blocks here, I would instead recommend the Berkeley or Airbnb makes a much better experience and the hosts in the area are all amazing to work with. The location here and the pool are the only reason I gave them two stars instead of one. It was extremely stressful dealing with them on an already high stress weekend. They’re too new and don’t have their ducks in a row quite yet. All our guests said they were displeased with how tight and cramped and small the...